Land Rover converted to electric in one hour
Hi, I’m Richard from Electric Classic Cars. And on this week’s episode, we’re going to be converting this beasty here to electric using that box there and that stuff there. Let’s get into it. Now, about a year ago, I went on an amazing trip of a lifetime to Africa to see a friend of mine and stayed at his lovely parents’ place in the Krugerg National Park. and we went on safari twice a day and it was amazing. Now, for those that don’t know what a Game Viewer is, we were sitting in a basically a pickup like this. It was actually a Toyota, but they do have lots of Land Rover Defenders over there as well. And they have essentially three rows of seats. They got a row of seats here, a row of seats there, and another row of seats kind of sitting up there over the tailgate. And whilst it was an amazing experience seeing all the wildlife there, the one thing that spoiled it was the diesel engine in those game viewers. That noise, the pollution, the smoke, the smell coming out the back, it spoiled the serenity of the nature that we were surrounded by. And I just thought electric would be perfect out there for a number of reasons. But there’s something very distinctly different about this Land Rover Defender compared to the other Land Rover Defenders we’ve converted before, like those ones behind. So, let’s have a chat about that. Now, there’s a lot of things that are different between our standard Land Rover Defender conversions and the Game Viewer electric requirements, if you like. For instance, um a Game Viewer doesn’t need 110 kWh battery pack because it doesn’t need to go, you know, long long range. With a game view, you normally go out in the morning and then uh later on in the afternoon, stroke evening when the temperatures aren’t high, the animals are active and you you go out on pretty short stints really. So 110 kWh battery pack, complete overkill. CCS rapid charging, complete overkill. 600 horsepower Tesla motor, complete overkill. So that’s why we didn’t go with our standard Defender conversion kit. So that’s the game viewer uh system is a lot less complicated and most importantly a fraction of the cost. So when I came back from that safari in Africa, I was really enthused by the opportunity for electric conversion kit for a safari vehicle. And I drew up a remit of what I thought would make the perfect electric conversion kit. And essentially it would had to be rugged because you’re doing a lot of off-roading out there. Um, you had to keep the transfer box because you wanted a low high ratio and be able to lock the diff to get you out of a dry river bed and other off-roading stuff that they’re doing. Um, the range needed to be a lot less. So, the battery pack needed to be a lot smaller. I’m sitting on the battery pack here. More on that in a minute. Um, but also it needed to be installed by two people in two days with basic tools and a forklift truck. I just thought, you know, let’s let’s set the bar at that, if you like. So, that’s mainly what I want to do in this episode. I want to see how fast it takes the guys here to install this kit in our simulated game viewer that we have here. So, on that note, before we get started, and the guys in the background quite keen already, I’m just going to give you a little bit of a walk around at the kit they’re going to be installing. So, let’s start with the battery pack. And that’s essentially what I’m standing on here. Now, this gets installed in the bed in the back there. And for Defender, it looks like this. For a Toyota, because there’s a lot of Toyota game viewers out there as well, the battery box looks very similar, but this section here is actually on the floor. Because in a Toyota pickup bed, it’s essentially all flat with some little bubbles for the wheel arches, but Defender that you’ve got box section that goes all the way down. So this is the battery box and you can imagine you’ve got a row of seats here, feet down there, row of seats here, feet there, row of seats there, feet on there and this is a very strong structural box and within it is the battery box. So, it’s a there’s a battery box and then another box around it that has a lot of strength to it to be able to stand on and cope with all of those people cuz there’s going to be nine people if you like that can uh be on the back here. But there’s normally a frame that goes around with all the seats that doesn’t get mounted to this. It gets mounted to the vehicle. But that’s the battery box. Let’s talk about the other stuff at the front. Let’s start with the main item which is the drivetrain stack. So this is a 160 kW motor with the charger in the DC toDC converter in the PDM everything all in one unit because the aim of the game with this kit is to keep it simple and rugged. So this essentially is everything bar the battery and then that sits in this cradle here. And this is the defender cradle universal. So, this will fit in Pummer, 200 TDI, 300 TDI, TD5, petrol V8, doesn’t matter. This is a universal cradle. It will fit in any Defender. And that goes in first. Then that goes on top. And this also contains a power steering, your vacuum pump for your brakes, and that’s pretty much it. And then behind me here is the cooling stack if you like. So, this is your radiator, your header tank, and your pump. And that obviously attaches to the uh motor stack over there. And then this little collection of bracketry here is to do with the transfer box because when you take the transfer box and the uh gearbox and separate them, you lose one of the transfer box mounts. And if you’re not careful, the whole thing is going to flex like this. So what you’ve got is you’ve got the replacement to yeah mounts if you like for the transfer box here and here that keep that transfer box nice and rigid but also when you lose the gearbox you also lose where you’re going to have your high low and your lock diff gear sticks that goes onto this mount here and this little bit here is the high voltage junction box that joins the power stack with the motor and the charger and thing to the motor uh to the battery pack at the back. So, that is pretty much it. Oh, one very important bit that I missed out. The throttle. Ain’t going to go very far without that. So, with all this here and the battery pack at the back, it’s all laid out, ready to rock and roll and try to install it in a day, I hope. But we’ll soon find out how long it’s going to take cuz I’m going to rustle up the guys and we’re going to get the forklift fired up and see how long it takes to convert this monster of a Land Rover. Right, we’re ready. I think so. Before we get started, might come this way. I should actually mention that’s not Tim be on the camera today. That’s Mike. That’s uh replacement Tim. Say hello Mike. So in the comments uh who’s the better cameraman? Just kidding. Just kidding. Controversial. Just kidding, Tim. Um, so let’s just cover off one thing. This car is filthy for a reason because we’ve been doing some rigorous testing uh in the past few weeks up in the Welsh hills just to make sure that, you know, this works. So, these guys are probably going to be moaning at me uh soon because they’ll have Welsh mud dropping in their eyes as they’re doing this. But yeah, we’ve had a ton of wet sand and dumpy bag in the back to simulate all the uh passengers. And we’ve been giving this some serious well up in the Welsh hills just to make sure that the whole thing is good to go. And I can confirm it’s good to go. But we’re going to do that on a separate uh episode. So now we’ve got two likely lads, Alan Mark, going to help us get this thing uh converted. We have we have those guys. We have a clock. What time is it? It is 20-3 currently. So, how long do you reckon it’s going to take? L we got a coffee. Oh, we’re already talking about a break already up against it. Oh, the unions are going to be on my back. Right. So, 20 to three. If you guys start at the battery pack, uh I’ll uh start at the front. We’ll meet like in the middle. So, there’s going to be three of us on this. Well, you said two people. Yeah, but two and a half people. All right. But that’s two people in two days. I’m not You’re not going to be filming for two days, mate. Right. Ready? Yeah. Go. Clock’s ticking, boys. Let’s go. All right. I’m gonna get the toolbox. Mark and I wasted no time getting the battery box into the back of the Defender. Meanwhile, Rich started on fitting that front cradle. Essentially, this already has the engine and gearbox out. You probably see the transfer box is still in buried down there. So this is our starting point. So the first thing we got to do now is get the cradle in. So, this cradle bolts into the original body mounts and at the front it goes over the um front crossmember back. They’ve done the battery already. Yeah, battery box is in. Oh, mate. I’m I’m behind. With the battery box in, Alan Mark wasted no time getting the high voltage junction box and the transfer box mounts all fitted. Meanwhile, Rich, who seemed to be falling behind, made short work of getting the rad pack and the throttle pedal installed. With time ticking, it was time for the last of the large components to go in, the motor stack. And the beauty of it is it’s the motor, inverter, charger, and DC/DC converter all in one. Oh, and did we mention that the prop is actually the original Land Rover prop? So, no need for a custom one of those either. Now that most of the mechanical work is done, it’s time for wiring. Starting off with high voltage, the charge port goes in and the high voltage junction box connects everything at the front up to the battery pack. And the final piece of the puzzle is the low voltage loom, any piping for coolant, vacuum, and power steering, fluids, and the drive controls and display panel. Right, that’s it. Stop the clock. Stop the clock. I can’t see the clock. Big reveal. Can you do it? Three minutes off an hour. Come on. Three minutes shy. Well, let’s call it Let’s call it an hour. Well done. That’s about Well, hang on a minute. We We’re celebrating. We haven’t turned it on yet. Right. Go on, Mike. You’ll have to come around here. So, can you see that screen there? Down there. Look, they’re all crowding around now. Shut fingers crossed. We’re all crowded round. Right. Ready? Key on. A bonus when something lights up. Let’s see if it goes into drive. So, I’m going to close the door. I got a R for reverse. Right. Everything free under the wheels. Put it in gear. Might help. Hey, there you go. Job done. Tell you what, we’ll get out and just Is it raining? Of course it’s raining. It’s Wales. You wanted the top off of it. It’s uh Well, it’s it’s a you know, it’s a game view line. There’s no no hippos or lions in Wales. It’s just going to be lots of sheep, right? And you got brake lights. Brake lights work. See, it all wires up. Everything works even though it’s done in an hour. There we go. It works. I’m going to go for a quick spit. I tell you what, you can do some off-roading. Mike, do you want to see some off-roading? Yes. Yes, I do. Oh, yeah. But I want these two in it as well. Go on then. In you go, boys. Right, let’s go and see if we can find some uh some wild animals, shall we? Some gazels. Uh possibly some antelope out today. Um maybe even some lions. Well, they come out in the rain. Yeah. On your right hand side, you’ll see a pride of lions. And over there some giraffes of m. Yeah, I tell you what, this is this is the best way to do safaris. And we notice how quiet it is. Apart from me yabbering on. Oh, we’ve come to an impass. We’ll be in with the crocodiles. There we go. This is showing off the best attributes, right? This is why I think electric safari vehicles are going to be the thing to have out in Africa because it’s silent. You know, you can hear the birds. You can probably hear spuds scratching at the window wanting some food. But there’s only one thing I want to do now. I want to weigh it. It’s gonna be I have no idea. It’ll be a lot heavier if we stay out here in the ring. Yeah. I tell you what, we’ll have to Google Google how much a normal 110 uh pickup is and then we’ll uh weigh this one. Back to the lab. Right. So, I’ve just Googled it now. Um, so the original weight of a 110 pickup, depending on the engine, cuz uh TD5s and um petrol V8s, etc., and Pummers, they’re all different weights. Um, it ranges from 1,890 kilos to 2,90 kilos. So, basically 1,890 to 2,90 kilos on the scales. Yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah. 1723. 1723. 1723. So we are lighter. So bear in mind this is the 40 kWh battery pack we put in. This is all is also available in 60 kW hours. But 40 is all probably I’d say enough for a game viewer. 60 if you really want to be sure. Um 40 should be good for about 100 km. uh 60 probably around about 150 kilometers. So we are a couple of hundred kilos lighter than the original which is important on the game viewer because they put a lot of weight in the back with the seat frames and the seats and the passengers. So that’s an important point. This starts as an electric one lighter than the diesel version with a full tank of fuel. So that’s another win for us. I think that’s it really. Is there anything? We just need to go off-roading. Let’s do it. So, but I think that we’ll leave that for another episode. So, there we go. One Land Rover Defender converted in a day in an hour even uh for game viewers. So, anybody that’s interested in a electric game viewer, get in contact via the website. Um we are sorting out pricing now, but it’s a fraction of the price of the uh normal defenders that we do. And before anybody asks, can somebody just grab me a tape measure? Just want to see cuz obviously we’ve designed this for game viewers, but I know people are going to ask whether or not we can do it for other Land Rovers. So the this is 61 in. Right. So I want to measure now. Mark, give us a hand. I want to see whether or not it’s going to fit underneath the rear seats on a four-door. So, if we go at the same point, uh, what we got? Let me torch. 60. Oh, there it is. 61. So, can you see that? Just about. Yeah, that’s 61 there. So, if you zoom back out, just so people know where that is, that is coming to there. It’s essentially where this box is here. So although we’ve designed this for game viewers, it may may be possible to put this into a four-door defender, but that’s not what this kit was designed for. Let’s stay straight on track. This is for game viewers for now. So there we go. That’s the end of the episode. Al’s wiped his forehead of sweat. Uh he’s waiting for biscuits and break and tea. And uh yeah, I’m a happy bunny cuz we managed to convert this in an hour, which um it’s a lot shorter than I thought it was going to be, like a good afternoon, but anyway, it’s converted in an hour. I think this is the future of safari vehicles in Africa. So, anybody interested, give us a shout, contact us via the website. Um this is the Defender version. We’re going to be working on the Toyota version next. and maybe I might consider seeing if it actually fits in four-door Defender 110s as well. So, on that note, hope you enjoy this episode and we’ll see you on the next one. Definitely should have given this vehicle a wash underneath before we did this, Mike. Oh, is it not nice and clean under there? Stinks of sheep poo. You the new motor. I’m the new motor. Gone for the the more powerful version, have we? It rac. Yeah. Oh, we’ve got to edit that out. Come on. They done the battery already. Yeah. Battery box is in. Oh. Oh, mate. I’m I’m behind. There is two of them. Oh, yes. Thank Thanks for that excuse there, Mike. No, I didn’t see you pull Phil and Neil in before. No, I’ll edit that out. That definitely didn’t happen, did it? We are the boys. We are the boys.
We have a new electric Land Rover Defender to have fun in. This one is converted to electric using our new electric game-viewer conversion kit, ideal for the perfect safari.
Electric safari vehicles are so much better that diesel ones as the last thing you need while enjoying the peaceful serenity of the savannah in Africa is the noise, vibrations and pollution of a diesel.
Although we’ve been converting Land Rovers to electric for 10 years now, our standard conversion kit is overkill for the requirements of a game-viewer in Africa. The average game drive is 30-40km so there’s no need for a large 110kWh battery pack, so a 40 or 60 kWh battery pack options are ideal, which would give up to 100km and 150km range in the bush respectively. As the drives are at very low speeds there’s also no need for our usual high power motors. We’ve also kept the lock-diff feature of the Land Rover as nearly all driving will be done in harsh off-road conditions. Charging requirements are also totally different in the bush. There’s no need for CCS rapid charging as the lodges either have limited electrical capacity, with some even being powered from solar and battery storage. Therefore slower AC charging is sufficient.
Our new game-viewer electric conversion kit is designed to be, simple, rugged, low cost and easy to install, but how easy??? Can it be installed in one day, one afternoon, or less………
There’s only one way to find out.
If you are interested in our game-viewer kit for either the Land Rover or the more common Toyotas that are used in Africa, please feel free to contact us : sales@electricclassiccars.co.uk
Find out more about our Electric Classic Cars at https://www.electricclassiccars.com
